Ruling party's Kim Young-ho declares Supreme Council bid, vows to lead unity drive

Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Kim Young-ho officially declared his candidacy for the party's Supreme Council on Thursday, pledging to "completely sever the forces of division within us and become the vanguard of unity that can lift the Democratic Party back together as one" ahead of the Aug. 17 national convention.

Speaking at a press conference at the National Assembly, Kim said the party had fallen into "endless conflict and confrontation," with mutual attacks and harsh words crossing dangerous thresholds and stoking fears of mutual destruction.

"As a three-term senior lawmaker, I will firmly steady the party's center of gravity and bring its wounded spirit together as one," he added.

Kim called for a sweeping overhaul of how the party is run, saying he would move away from "an authoritarian and closed style of management in which a small leadership decides everything" and instead harness the full strength and wisdom of the 161-seat ruling party to deliver responsible governance. To that end, he pledged to activate 161 special committees on livelihood reform with participation from all lawmakers, expand rights-member councils and youth deliberation committees to party chapters across all provinces and cities, and complete prosecutorial reform without gaps.

Kim drew a line at the possibility of forming a "running mate" alliance with candidates for party leader. "I have deep ties with former party leaders Jung Chung-rae and Song Young-gil, as well as Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, but I am not aligned with the party establishment," he said. "One of my reasons for running is a sense of frustration that a handful of people have been running this party too narrowly — I must not be subordinate to any faction."

Kim also staked out a specific position on prosecutorial reform, a contentious issue within the party. On Prime Minister Kim Min-seok's statement — made as the government's position — calling for the abolition of supplementary investigative powers, Kim said the party should "complete its own amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure, and if there are differences with the government's proposal, work closely together to find common ground."

On former party leader Jung Chung-rae's insistence on the complete abolition of supplementary investigative powers, Kim said he had criticized that stance because "arguing for full abolition before a party position has been decided could become the seed of conflict between the party, the government and the presidential office." He added that he had hoped Jung would "make an honorable declaration not to run for the sake of party harmony, but it seems that will not happen."